WHERE have all the Adults gone???

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It is a catch-22. It's not 100% of the time, but it does come up often enough. I've seen it said to varying degrees (as in, not always as absolute as I described) on this forum.

Your doctor is getting it backwards. Demonstrated impairments determine whether you are able to work (assuming you don't have a lying liar of a judge like I did), regardless of diagnosis. It seems to be harder to prove incapacity on the basis of chronic pain or AS or even autism than it is to do so on the basis of depression and avoidance/anxiety, however.

We are definitely less common in the older category, but that is for a variety of complicated reasons (if already mentioned before, sorry, too many posts to read!!)

1. There's the fact that autism wasn't as well known as before
2. There are so many varying degrees and so many good quality psychologists and psychiatrists who probably actually suck at autistic related issues because it is so different from so many other things
3. There is a lot more liability for underserving children than adults. Adults can be expected to be more responsible for themselves and or to "fall" more, so even if we definitely need or deserve the services, they will be that much harder to obtain
4. Economy is bad, so social services are that much more undervalued
5. Some autistic people are just looked at as different

My psychiatrist has a person with LFA who can work. He pretty much told me that I can't work (AS/HFA).

Disability is based on actual ability rather than a label, in other words.

I'm female and just turned 60. I just started figuring out my Aspergers in the last few months. I took a few of these online quizes and came in "you are very likely". I've been in an, "I don't know, but it sure would explain a lot," phase. However, tonight I did the RAADS-R and scored a solid, no-point-in-arguing-about-it 156. I am in shock and calculating Pi right now. But, it sure would be nice if there was at least some knowledgeable counseling available out there. Everything I've found focusses on younger people.

...and....

I worked for 27 years or so, until my health hit the skids too badly. I did pretty much OK until I got promoted too far above my social abilities. Always in trouble after that. I think I would have been better off if I had known and had the sense to stick with more technical things I could work on more independently. Once you get up into management beyond a certain point it is 90% about social and political skills. I was a disaster at that stuff. I was unhappy and always exhausted and left a lot of people pissed off. I found a niche where I could work on sciency stuff with pretty good independence, but then, I kept wanting people I worked with to go by the rules. I'm not talking petty stuff, I'm talking state law. It is all ancient history now, thankfully.

I think if you are an adult on the autism spectrum the very least need career counseling or coaching. Relationship/life counseling would be humane, but that's not the culture we live in. We're still arguing about basic health care for all, FCOL.

Acquaintances also have a colleague at work who's "LFA" and he that paid job.

Sure, sorting notes and letters and delivering them may be unsatisfactory for some individuals on WP if one were to ask them for their opinion on what they would like to do but this autistic guy who is also intellectually disabled has paid work.

A dependable job, everyday. A sheltered job but it's right in the middle of a perfectly normal company surrounded by perfectly normal people and he's paid. That's something.

I wonder if she realises that Aspergers isn't the same for everyone.

Yeah, I'm lucky because my insurance doesn't stop covering things for autism when the person turns 18 like a lot of them that cover anything do. I get unlimited OT visits instead of 18 maximum in a year if its for treatment of an ASD.

But yeah, it takes either wanting to put a lot of effort in yourself, or having a doctor who's wanting to put a lot of effort in. The way I've pulled off getting levels of support similar to children in some ways is by having spent two years seeing my primary care doctor, who is very much someone who does everything she can for each patient, monthly.

Having a doctor willing, and able, to put that much effort in is huge. It's made a huge difference for me.

[quote="EstherJ"
Why is the world so focused on autistic children only, and missing the rest of the population? Is it some kind of collective social tunnel vision???[/quote]

I think we are in a period of transition - autism's been around for a very long time, but the actual concept of it is still a very new thing, particularly the concept of high functioning autism/aspergers. A few years ago, few people had even heard either term, except for Rainman, or maybe Temple Grandin.

People resist change. People are uncomfortable with the idea that some of the wealthiest, most innovative people in modern society are adults with Aspergers (like Gates or Zuckerberg). But in the information age, with Autistic adults coming out of the woodworks, it's getting harder and harder to deny.

It's very very frustrating, and it is collective social tunnel vision, but I think it will change.

That being said, I love wrongplanet, but I do wish it had a more professional look to it - no offense, but it looks explicitly child-like, with the intentionally child-like alien drawing, etc. Since it's kind of the go to place for people looking into ASDs, I'm afraid the look perpetuates the idea that even older ASD folks are child-like.

I like the cartoon of the alien very much, but it does make me feel like this is a site for young Aspies, yes. But that's only logical, it was created by a 17-year old...

Or the cost to those of us who did work! I worked for 27 years and wound up with so many health issues related to stress - which began right about the time I started school and progressed from there - that it took me years after early retirement to feel as if I've even halfway come to terms with them. A work life can hammer a lot harder on someone with Aspergers. On the one hand I think some of my work experiences were good for me. On other hand I very often wonder if I should have been on disability that entire time. I might be healthier now and live longer if I had.

I don't think anyone but the person experiencing Aspergers can make that determination, because so much goes on internally that we have difficulty expressing. Neither do I think one person with AS can make it for another. But of course the system isn't set up that way.

The current thread, "Why I Can't Work" (http://www.wrongplanet.net/posts177916-highlight.html) makes me wonder if there needs to be a better solution to helping people get by who have high-functioning disabilities (of any kind), some kind of safety net, under which one can work, but also be able to fall immediately back on benefits when work becomes too much or not suitable.

During my entire work life - and I was successful in staying employed and getting promoted - I had high absenteeism, and a continuing gnawing fear that missing so much work (that I couldn't explain, since I didn't even know what AS was all that time) would get me into a bad position where I wouldn't have work. Honestly I spent that entire time terrified of becoming homeless. My dad, who I suspect had AS, had a terrible time keeping work. He did, but he also had high absenteeism, as well as a problem getting on with some people including a lot of his bosses. If my mom hadn't also worked, there were times when we would have been in serious straights. These problems were not because either of us didn't want to work, or were lazy. We both were hard working, wanted to have our financial independence, and felt that work was important. We didn't want to leech off the system, but it sure would have helped our stress levels if we'd known something was there to fall back on if we needed it.

Totally agree with SpiritBloome. Some people can make it through at a great cost, but that doesn't mean everyone can. Nor does it mean that the system is humane. It is brutal for most people.

Now we are our own parents. It's up to us to read to us at night, kick up a fuss on our behalf, etc.

My roommate might actually get really scared if I started to do that!! !
Imagine that - she comes in the door, and there I am reading to myself. Out loud. In funny voices. Oh dear.

very true.

Unfortunately, many of us are reluctant to stand up in the open and be counted -- having worked so hard to build a life in spite of the problems, it's hard to risk it. Maybe as we each reach retirement age, we'll be braver.

I'm also watching the generation of '85 with great interest. They're diagnosed and mostly out in the open already. They are our "baby boom" that will set trends as they age.